Rep. David Price, who represents North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, and Rep Ted Deutch of Florida, have asked President Trump to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear pact negotiated in 2015. Submitted

Rep. David Price, who represents North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, and Rep Ted Deutch of Florida, have asked President Trump to certify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear pact negotiated in 2015. Submitted

WASHINGTON

Democratic Congressmen David Price and Ted Deutch have sent a letter to President Trump asking that he certify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear agreement negotiated in 2015.

Certifying compliance “will provide the United States with more leverage to stop a potential Iranian nuclear weapons program and push back on Iran’s destabilizing activities,” the letter states. Price, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 4th District, and Deutch, a Democrat who represents the 22nd District of Florida, were joined by 180 other Democrats in Congress who also signed the letter.

The United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union negotiated the deal in 2015. The agreement must be re-certified every three months under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. The president must recertify Iran’s compliance before Oct. 15.

The president has threatened to withhold certification, but the letter states that the White House has not shown any evidence of noncompliance by Iran to Congress, as the agreement requires.

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“We have received no such information to date,” the letter reads. “On the contrary, the International Atomic Energy Agency ... and career U.S. military and intelligence officials continue to verify that Iran has honored its obligations under the agreement,” the letter continued. The agreement was last certified July 17.

Withholding certification “would harm our alliances, embolden Iran, and threaten U.S. national security,” the letter states. Failure to certify also “would threaten global non-proliferation efforts and send exactly the wrong message to North Korea at the moment we are trying to diplomatically defuse that crisis.”

Other representatives who signed the letter included N.C. Reps. G.K. Butterfield and Alma Adams, as well as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. While the letter was signed only by Democrats, Price’s communications director, Sawyer Hackett, said he expects support from at least some Republicans in the House and Senate.

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